


something more like love than war

by glitterprince



Category: Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Alternate Universe - War, Enemies to Lovers, M/M, Royalty, War, War AU, alex is hot in princely attire, alex likes horses, alex yet again angers a queen, enemies au like actually enemies, no beta we die like men, not just hating each other for no reason, prince AU, tags updated as i write more, tags will update as i post more, there will be more characters but i haven't introduced them all yet, very minor mentions of blood
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-13 19:09:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28533447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glitterprince/pseuds/glitterprince
Summary: It was the new year. But a new year meant nothing now, after all this time. Everyone knew that nothing would change. There were no more speculations, no more “Next year can’t be worse than the last!” because everyone knew it would be. More lives lost, more blood shed, and for what? More war.And, sure, Alex was obviously sick of it. But he had to keep fighting, because the queen was the one in charge, and the queen was his mom.or, an au in which alex is a prince and henry is also (still) a prince, but their kingdoms are at war with one another.
Relationships: Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor
Comments: 16
Kudos: 22





	1. a lover's quarrel, if you could even call it that

**Author's Note:**

> hi! this is my first multi-chapter fic in, uh... years, so i might be a bit rusty, but i hope y'all like it anyway! the tags and summary are pretty vague because i didn't want to give anything away, so have fun ;)

It was the new year. But a new year meant nothing now, after all this time. Everyone knew that nothing would change. There were no more speculations, no more “Next year can’t be worse than the last!” because everyone knew it _would be_. More lives lost, more blood shed, and for what? More war.

And, sure, Alex was obviously sick of it. But he had to keep fighting, because the queen was the one in charge, and the queen was his mom. Yeah, it was unfortunate. But at least he had his sister, June, and his girlfriend. Nora.

Just as the thought of her crossed his mind, Alex heard a door swing shut and turned to see Nora behind him. She threw him a small smile and came to stand beside him, one hand on the balcony railing, another on his shoulder.

“Ready for the fireworks, babe?” she asked. Alex grinned and nodded. The fireworks were the only passable part of the night for him, the only thing that was pure fun and didn’t require any thought. Well, the drinking and partying, too, but. You know.

Nora turned her head to the sky, her brown curls cascading down her back, making little ripples in the blue silk of her dress. The wind picked up a little, and she looked more like a princess than ever. Alex supposed she would be, someday, when they were married. Wouldn’t stay just the duke’s daughter forever.

He let out a sigh and looked to the sky, too. Brilliant fires began to erupt, so loud that they drowned out all his thoughts. Nothing could distract him from this, what he was seeing right now, a fiery rainbow across the night sky, his future wife beside him. He let his thoughts go and sunk into the night.

He woke up the next morning with a splitting headache.

“Unnngghhhhhh,” he said, and put his pillow over his face to block out the sun.

“Nice to see you too,” said a voice, which he recognized as Nora’s.

“Go away,” Alex groaned.

“Mkay.” There was a pause, some footsteps, and then nothing. Alex peeked his head out from under his pillow and, sure enough, Nora was gone. He wondered briefly if she would be mad at him, but then remembered that of course she wouldn’t be—he was always like this. If she had a problem with it, she would’ve said something by now. Or just… stopped talking to him altogether, because Nora didn’t take anything from anyone.

Anyway. Point was, it was fine.

He tried to go back to sleep, but his head hurt too damn much. So he got up, got dressed, a boring frilly white top with black pants and some boots. He looked hot, yeah, but he could’ve looked hotter. If only his mom let him have _any_ creativity when it came to dressing for strategy meetings.

He went straight there and was able to take a short nap before it started, since he was the first one in the room. But when he awoke and raised his head to see who had arrived, literally everyone was there, staring at him disapprovingly. His sister simply raised an eyebrow, but he knew she would have things to say later.

“Everyone ready to start?” asked the queen as soon as she’d pried her eyes away from her disappointment of a son. A series of affirmative mumbles coursed from the room, as well as one “Of course, love,” from Leo, the prince consort, along with a kiss on the queen’s cheek. It was far too early for this, Alex thought. He and June shared an exasperated look.

“Alright.” The queen folded her hands together on the table and leaned forward. “I’ll just say it outright: we need to do something different. We’re not making any progress, and every day, more of our people are lost. We need to find some way to _defeat them_ , once and for all.”

 _Well, yeah_ , Alex almost said out loud, but was thankfully able to stop himself. Instead, he cleared his throat. “Maybe we could do something less violent and try to, I don’t know, _talk to them_. No, that’s crazy, right? Never been done?”

Yeah, that was actually worse. The whole room had turned to stare at him, except his mom, who was busy pretending he didn’t exist.

“We need to find a weak spot,” said the queen, resuming her speech.

“We’ve been trying for years,” protested one of the kingdom’s best spies.

“Yes, well, try _harder!_ ” the queen snapped. She sighed and put her head in her hands. “Sorry. I just. The pressure is really getting to me. I don’t want any more of our people dying, obviously.”

Leo put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay. We all know you’re trying.”

The rest of the meeting went on similarly, with the queen deciding to send out more spies and no other decisions being made. Most of the time was spent arguing or apologizing, and Alex was just thinking. About… whatever. He didn’t even know. He just didn’t want to be here. No one ever listened to what he had to say, anyway, even when he knew it’d help.

Finally, he was let out. Nora was waiting by the door, and June whispered “Go get ‘em” in his ear as they walked out. Alex rolled his eyes. He was a bit worried, actually; Nora looked almost… uncomfortable. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever seen her like this before; she was always either sure of herself or just didn’t give a shit.

She took ahold of Alex’s hand and started to lead him to his room. “What’s happening? Don’t tell me you wanna have sex _right now,_ I have plans this afternoon,” he joked, trying to lighten the mood. Nora just threw him a glare. …Not the best idea, then. Alex was the king of bad ideas this morning, it seemed.

She sat on his bed and he followed suit. “What’s going on?” he asked. “You okay?”

Nora blinked. “I’m fine. It’s just that I, uh, met someone? Just now, actually, like, during your meeting.”

Alex stared. “What the fuck, Nora, it’s been _two hours._ ”

She waved him off. “Yeah, whatever, time is irrelevant. I know something’s gonna happen with them, so I didn’t want to wait and end up cheating on you or something. Telling you now was the only logical choice.”

“Um.” Alex was still staring. He supposed he wasn’t that surprised—or even sad about it, really—Nora had always just been his default option. If she’d met someone who she liked more, he couldn’t really be upset about it. He just felt blank, confused.

“We’re still going to be friends,” said Nora, as if it was obvious.

“Well, yeah,” Alex agreed. “Not gonna let a lifelong friendship go to waste just because of a lover’s quarrel. If you could even call it that.”

This did change some things, though. Nora left the room, giving him some excuse about needing to eat breakfast, and Alex sat with his thoughts.

He was less upset about this as he’d always assumed he would be. Breakups were supposed to hurt, right? But maybe he mostly just cared about Nora as a friend, and had only ever dated her because she was there, because they were close and he knew he needed to marry and produce an heir someday. They got along well and didn’t have any problems; well, until now. But this didn’t even feel like a problem, it felt _fine_.

Weird.

But the point stood that he had to find someone else. Maybe not yet—June was older than him, first in line, and she’d yet to find someone—but someday.

He dreaded the thought. It was so much more fun to just hook up with pretty girls at balls.

Oh well; that was for future Alex to worry about. He glanced out his window, and it seemed like a good day to go riding—clear sky; probably relatively cool, it being autumn and all; and that was all the encouragement he needed. He did _not_ want to work on more war plans today. Any excuse to get out of that was a good one.

He changed into a more fitting outfit—brown trousers, riding boots, an overcoat for the cold—and walked out to the stables. A stable boy greeted him when he arrived, and he let him know that he’d be out riding, and to tell his mom so she wouldn’t worry. Then he mounted his horse, Valentine, and started on his way.

There was a forest nearby that he always liked to wander through. The leaves were dense, and it was slightly closer to neutral land than perhaps was safe during wartime, but he was always careful. He made sure to keep an eye out for anything… _off_ , brought his sword with him in the case of a fight. He knew how to defend himself just fine, thank you very much.

It was darker than usual in the woods today, and after looking to the sky, he realized it had become much cloudier since he’d left the castle. It _had_ been an hour or so, so it made sense that the weather could have changed. But it was… slightly concerning, considering Alex was trying to pay attention to his surroundings.

But it was such a nice day, really, the wind blowing through his curls and making his overcoat fly out behind him. It was almost like he was the one flying, in a way. He could hear the crunch of autumn leaves below Valentine’s hooves, see the forest grow denser as they went on. He wasn’t even sure if he recognized where he was anymore.

Wait, stop. This was _bad_ , like, actually a problem. Alex stopped Valentine in her tracks and dismounted, surveying his surroundings for anything that might be at all familiar.

But there was nothing. The trunks of the trees were all wide, wider than they were close to home, and there were no scrawled markings or anything that might make them stand out to an untrained eye. The sky was still clouded, but the clouds were growing darker, and with the dense brush, he could barely see anything. He held one hand to Valentine’s side to make sure he could find her if he needed to leave quickly, to get away from something. Or someone.

Just as the thought crossed his mind, he heard a rustling in the bushes and stiffened. It could just be an animal, he reminded himself. But… to be safe…

He mounted Valentine, took ahold of her mane and put his feet in the stirrups to make sure there was _no_ chance of him falling, even though he would probably dismount again right after checking in these bushes. He still had to figure out where he was, after all.

He made his way over to the bushes, knowing there was no way of him going unnoticed after Valentine had galloped all the way here. He drew his sword, trying to glance behind the bushes but finding that they were too dark, too dense to really see, but was that maybe something bright behind all the leaves?

Something grabbed him around the waist and pulled him down. He tried to stab whatever it was with his sword, but it was gone from his hand before he could hit anything. He found himself lying on his back in the underbrush, thorns poking his skin, and his own sword held to his throat. And glaring down at him… was the face of Henry, the prince of the neighboring kingdom. The very kingdom with which he was at war.

Well, fuck.


	2. his sweet words of strife

“Come with me if you don’t want to die,” said the prince in a low voice.

“Okay, Jesus, you don’t have to threaten me, I get it,” Alex stammered. The prince slowly took his blade away from Alex’s throat, but not before he’d gotten a strong grip on Alex’s wrist. He held it while Alex stood up. He must’ve thought he had a good grip, but Alex knew how to get out of this…

He pushed his wrist closer to Henry’s and then pulled away, quickly, twisting and immediately running towards Valentine. But Henry managed to reach out and hook his boot on Alex’s ankle before he went far, and he fell again, sprawled on the forest floor. He felt himself flip over and saw Henry above him again, blade at his throat. Henry looked bored, annoyed.

“Don’t try that again.”

“I won’t,  _ Your Highness _ ,” said Alex in a mocking tone. Yes, he was going to antagonize the enemy, Henry surely wouldn’t kill him just for being annoying. From a political standpoint, that made no sense.

Alex  _ hmm _ ed as the thought crossed his mind. “I don’t think you’ll really kill me, will you? We’re already at war, I know, but that’d make everything worse. Assuming you know who I am, because who wouldn’t.”

Henry sighed. “Yes, I know who you are. Christ, just… just come with me.”

“Fine.”

And Alex followed, but not because he was actually  _ scared _ of this guy. He was curious, actually; curious where he was taking him, curious if Henry would actually have the guts to do anything to hurt Alex if he resisted, or keep him hostage, even. Henry might’ve  _ looked _ every bit the princely warrior—broad shoulders; an expression that shifted between placid and annoyed, never showing weakness; and what Alex could only assume were muscles under his frilly shirt—but Alex had a feeling there was something else there, because how could someone possibly be so boring? There must have been more to him than a good body, fighting skills, and the ability to do all the basic princely duties that Alex couldn’t stand.

Alex still hated him, though,  _ obviously. _ Because he was on the side he was at war with, and also because he was insufferable. Henry was a snobby evil prince, but he wasn’t evil enough to kill Alex without reason, and Alex was going to give him as hard of a time as he possibly could.

“Can I at least take my horse?” he whined, and Henry threw him a glare. He led Alex over to Valentine and took ahold of her reins, started to lead her along with them. Alex cursed himself for allowing Valentine to become so trusting over all the years. She could’ve been a warrior horse, but  _ noooo _ , he had to use her for just his extracurricular wandering through the woods and nothing else. Stupid.

He walked with Henry for… an unsettlingly long amount of time. “Are we going back to your kingdom or something?” Alex asked seriously. “Cause, like… it might be too far for us to walk.”

“I think I know where my own kingdom is, and no, we’re not going back there,” Henry answered without looking back at him.

“Why are you out here, anyway?”

That seemed to set something off, because Henry stayed silent for longer than he’d been this whole time. But, finally, he spoke.

“We are enemies. That’s not for you to know.”

Alex sighed heavily. “ _ Boring _ . Fine, be like that, I’ll make my own fun.”

He started singing a folk song from his kingdom at the top of his lungs. He was having far too much fun annoying this snobby prince who he’d never liked, who he should probably be scared of, in the position he was currently in. Alex didn’t care, though. He did what he wanted.

After Alex had made his way through a couple more songs, they arrived in a clearing. There was a cottage in the center, and Alex immediately stopped walking, forcing Henry to follow suit.

“Woah, woah, woah, don’t tell me we’re going to go in there and get eaten by a creepy old candy lady. I’d rather keep my gorgeous body, Your Highness.”

Henry huffed. “This is a normal cottage, you nimrod. No gingerbread roof, see?” He pointed.

“How did you even know this was here?” Alex was still staring at the place incredulously. “What is this?”

Henry looked almost nervous, now, but he was clearly trying to hide it. Not well, Alex might add; he was barely keeping ahold of Alex’s wrist, his hands were so sweaty.

“I won’t answer that,” he said, echoing his earlier statement. Alex was getting quite annoyed with this repetition, but he supposed he  _ was _ technically this guy’s prisoner, so there wasn’t really anything he could do about it, unfortunately.

He was led into this cottage that looked eerily lived-in. Alex considered asking Henry if he had killed the people who’d lived here, but decided against it. Henry would probably just glare at him again, the little bastard. Never giving him a straight answer.

The place was messy, but not in a  _ creepy old abandoned cabin in the woods where you’ll probably die _ kind of way, just like a home that had been lived in. Alex gave Henry a suspicious look, and Henry didn’t even notice. He was too busy dragging Alex to a room in the center of the cottage.

Once he’d shoved Alex inside and followed him in, Henry locked the door and stuffed the key in his pocket. Alex looked around--no windows. No way of escape but through that door.

Alex smirked up at Henry. Little did he know, Prince Alex of Claremont knew how to pick locks.

Henry gave him a stern look. “Don’t even  _ think _ about picking the lock,” he said, and Alex’s smile slid off his face. Henry rolled his eyes. “Yes, I know, I’m very intelligent, henceforth why I knew that you would try the  _ one _ way of escaping this place, ha ha so funny. You’re not as sly as you look, Alex.”

“You think I look sly?” Alex grinned, choosing to forgive Henry for not calling him  _ Prince _ , because at least he understood Alex’s appeal.

Henry stiffened. “...No. It’s just a figure of speech.”

“Oh.” Alex slid onto a wicker chair and sulked.

Henry left at some point after that, presumably because he’d grown bored of Alex, which Alex absolutely could  _ and did _ blame him for, because Alex was a delight.

After awhile, Alex was understandably bored of being alone, so he got up and walked around the room. It appeared to be a study of some sort, with a small desk right beside the chair he’d been sitting on and books piled on it. Alex rifled through them, and there didn’t seem to be a pattern--poetry, fiction, history, as well as books on how to grow plants, for some reason? If Alex was trapped here for long, he’d probably have to read some of these. Could be worse. At least there was a variety.

As far as the rest of the room went, it just looked like a lot of junk. Broken furniture, more dusty books on a bookshelf, a few half-melted candles that were the only source of light in the room, some random keys strewn about but none that fit in the lock (he tried them all), and so much more. There was barely any floor space left, it was so messy.

There was so much to do here, potentially--so much that Alex could read, so much that he could look through, certainly some secret knowledge about whoever had lived here or maybe even still did. But there was a clock on the wall, and Alex could see that he had been in this room for  _ six fucking hours _ now, and he didn’t like staying still all the time, and he wanted to get out of this fucking place so damn bad that he was going to pick the lock anyway. What the hell, Henry was probably sleeping or something anyway, right? He’d never know. 

Alex had found a few thin metal pieces in the desk drawer earlier when he was tearing apart the room, and he’d cleverly stashed them away in his shirt pocket for this very reason. He’d had a feeling he was going to cave at some point, and of course he was right. He was always right.

Alex internally praised himself on his intelligence while he worked on picking the lock. Soon, he heard a click and tried the knob. It turned without protest.

“Fuuuck yeah,” he said under his breath, and opened the door as quietly as he could. He couldn’t see Henry anywhere so far--granted, it was dark, only one candle burning in a corner of the room, but he was pretty sure he was safe--

A loud sigh came from his left, and he bolted. Alex made it to the door, but when he tried it, it wouldn’t open. Not locked--stuck. He cursed and turned around to find himself pinned to the door, his own fucking sword against his throat  _ fucking again _ .

“Why must you do this to me?” Alex asked.

He could barely see Henry in the candlelight, but he could swear the enemy prince had the same exasperated expression as before. “You’re in here for a reason,” he said. “I know you want to escape, and I get why, but if you leave, you’ll put us both in danger.”

“What kinda bullshit…” Alex huffed. “I understood why you’d be holding me hostage just to be mean, but damn. You don’t have to make up excuses,  _ Your Highness _ , I already know we’re enemies. It’s not like it’s a fucking secret or something.”

Henry tried to start saying something else, but while Alex had been distracting him with his sweet words of strife, he’d been slowly poising himself to strike. Henry yelped, stabbed with the pin Alex had used to pick the lock.

In his surprise, Henry took a step back, which gave Alex a little room to move without cutting his throat. Alex rushed back to the study, picked up a few things and started throwing them at Henry, while Henry dodged and tried to stab him. It was quite an unfair battle, Alex thought, Henry with a sword and Alex with just a bunch of big books.

“You wound me with your heavy words,” said Henry breathlessly after Alex managed to land a hit with a dictionary.

“Shut up,” Alex growled, and picked up another book. But then he felt an immense burst of pain in his thigh, and he sank to the ground with a cry.

He looked down in horror to find the leg of his trousers growing red. He touched it, slowly, and when he pulled away his palm was slick with blood.

He glared up at Henry from the ground. “Oh, I  _ fucking _ hate you,” he seethed.

For a second, it seemed like Henry looked almost sorry, but then his face returned to its usual insolence. “I had to,” he said simply. “I’ll patch it up for you, but you can’t try to escape again.”

Alex curled his lip in anger. “I won’t take anything from you,” he spat.

And that was how Alex ended up treating his own wound.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi!! it took me 238349 years to update this (/hyp) but i hope y'all liked it! focusing is,, interesting sometimes lmao so this definitely won't be updating on a regular schedule but yee yee thanks for reading :)


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